Updated 8 June 2017
Hospital Logistics Centre is operated by DHL Supply Chain Limited. The service opened in the mid-1990s. It is an independent ambulance service in Wembley in the London Borough of Brent. The service primarily serves the communities of the North West London area.
The service has had a registered manager in post since 09/09/2011. At the time of the inspection, a new manager had recently been appointed and was registered with CQC in 21/02/2017.
Updated 8 June 2017
Hospital Logistics Centre is operated by DHL Supply Chain Limited. The ambulance service provides a patient transport service, and also has the facility to transport high dependency patients.
We inspected this service using our comprehensive inspection methodology. We carried out the announced part of the inspection on 22nd February 2017.
To get to the heart of patients’ experiences of care and treatment, we ask the same five questions of all services: are they safe, effective, caring, responsive to people's needs, and well-led?
Throughout the inspection, we took account of what people told us and how the provider understood and complied with the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
The main service provided by this service was a patient transfer service (PTS). This service provides non-urgent and non-specialist services that transport patients between hospitals, home and other places such as care homes.
We regulate independent ambulance services but we do not currently have a legal duty to rate them. We highlight good practice and issues that service providers need to improve and take regulatory action as necessary.
We found the following areas of good practice:
Competent staff
Staff treating and caring for patients with compassion, dignity and respect
Positive communication between staff and patients
Staff expressing passion about their job and dedication to ensuring patients were provided with good care
Strong team work
Excellent patient care
However, we also found the following issues that the service provider needs to improve:
Poor compliance with safeguarding polices
Lack of staff appraisals
Lack of clinical governance structures within the service
Following this inspection, we told the provider that it must take some actions to comply with some regulations contained in the Health and Social Care Act 2008 and that it should make other improvements. We have also issued the provider with four requirement notices. Details are at the end of the report.
Updated 8 June 2017